Page 6 of The Demon's Fire
“You’re right,” she said, “too much caffeine. A shot of whiskey?”
Kole turned his angry glare toward her.
Grrrr.
“No need to get snarly,” she said.
Reason filtered through his haze of anger. He was a soldier. Cadmon was his commander. The animus demon ground his teeth, considered his predicament, and called back the heated energy coursing throughout his body, igniting his fingertips.
He didn’t have to be happy-happy with the assignment or kind to the all-mighty Earther. He only had to do his duty.
Duty first. Always.
Kole smothered his fury. “Yes, sir.”
“How is the search for Cerberus going?” The ylve resumed sitting, crossing his legs, flicking off an imaginary bit of lint as he changed the subject.
Bounty relaxed in her chair, probably relieved she didn’t have to sweep Cadmon’s ashes into the trash.
Kole focused on the question instead of the boot-licking task ahead. No use setting off another round of finger flares. “Nothing yet. I am meeting later today with Director Alarik at his Ministry of Well Being to see if his scryers have uncovered anything about Cerberus. When we ID the bastard, I’d enjoy frying him with 500,000 volts of electricity.”
The ylve let a rare malevolent smile curve his lips. When it faded, he said, “It’s thanks to you we have the intel we have.”
Kole shrugged off the praise. His quick action had been the direct result of itchy skin. His Firebrands had shut down a lucrative human sex slave trade. Each captive had unwillingly given a blood sample to their kidnappers.Itch. So, Kole had healers test all the victims before returning them to Earth.
Surprise, the prisoners were not random Earthers. They shared similar DNA markers, unrecognizable to their human medical experts, just another puzzle in their complicated genome. But each captive was the descendant of a witch or warlock.Scratch. Scratch.
Before Rein lobbed off his head, the vamp who ran the operation dropped the name of his boss. The big kahuna, Cerberus, had employed lackies to hack medical records, seeking Earthers with the specific markers identifying them as mages. Silas and Aisen kidnapped them. Why?Scratch. Scratch.
The hound of Hades, Cerberus, stars in the Prophecy of Karma. He hunts for the lost descendants of the Blood Coven so he can jumpstart the same old end-of-the-world shit. Conclusion? Silas and Aisen re-tested their captives to see if they were from a Blood Coven line.Itch cured.
Now, they had to find this Cerberus before he caused more trouble.
“Yeah. Sometimes I’m not as dumb as I look.”
“Do you think your Firebrands shut down the hunt when you dismantled the operation?” Cadmon jacked an ankle onto his opposite knee.
Kole scrubbed a fist across his jaw. “Can we take that chance?”
“No. That’s why we need the Ministry of Well Being. Alarik’s researchers will use the same process used by Cerberus. Meanwhile, they’ll look for a faster means. We must locate these human descendants of mages before he does.”
“A lot’s riding on the good guys getting to them first.”
Nodding, Cadmon rose, his uniform crisp with a razor-sharp crease in his pant legs.
“Cerberus may already have Earthers with Blood Coven ancestry in his possession,” said Kole. “Perhaps he stashed them somewhere other than the stockades we raided.”
The ylve high commander nodded. “It’s possible. When Alarik’s people uncover more humans with mage DNA, his healers must test them. I am assigning your Firebrands to accompany them to Earth. If they notify you any are descendants, bring them to safety on Scath.”
Bounty rushed to open the door, shooting Kole an okay sign.
Cadmon clasped Kole’s arm, fist to elbow. “Remember, I am depending on you to make a good impression on the Alliance CLO. Don’t let me down. Call for the itinerary of your tour. I leave this in your hands,freron.”
Kole swallowed a growl and snapped his shoulders back to indicate assent.
Once the door closed, the animus demon commander paced from wall to wall, the Who’s Moon the Loon pounding out a drum solo on his temples. Walking one length of the office, he ranted against the political side of his job, refused to kiss human ass, and resented this assignment. Striding back, he reminded himself he didn’t have to like the task. He just had to do his duty.
But heat continued to build in his extremities, the pain in his head increasing with each surge. When it reached the level of an exploding fragmentation grenade, Kole halted his back-and-forth, a spark flaring from an index finger. Pointing it toward the wall, the one Bounty had rigged with fireproofing, he used it like the nozzle of a flamethrower, charring the plasterboard and burning a hole in it.
